On Friday November 14th at approximately 1920 hours, Wilmington Firefighters on the B Platoon were dispatched to a reported structure fire with possible entrapment in the 400 block of Washington Street. Battalion Chief Michael Harris arrived on scene reporting fire showing from the third floor of a 3 story, end of row structure. Firefighters made attempted an aggressive interior attack on the flames while simultaneously searching for possible trapped occupants. No occupants were found inside and it was determined that the structure was vacant. Firefighters had to use extreme caution due to poor structural conditions including holes in the interior floors and weakened structural conditions. It took firefighters approximately 1 hour to bring the fire under control. The original fire building suffered heavy fire damage. The adjoining structure had minor smoke damage. There were no civilian or firefighter injuries. The Wilmington Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the fire.
Approximately 50 fire and EMS personnel responded to the fire. The following units responded: Engine 1, Engine 2, Engine 6, Engine 5; Squad 4; Ladder 2, Ladder 1; Battalion Chief 2, Battalion Chief 1; Ambulance 2, Ambulance 6; New Castle County EMS. County Engine 17 and County Ladder 28 covered Station 1 during the incident.
